Appeal decision expected for Goddard

Last updated at 08:46 20 August 2004

British Olympic Association officials will meet later today to discuss whether to pursue their bid to secure James Goddard a swimming bronze medal.

Goddard's bronze hopes looked to have been dashed late last night when a British appeal against the re-instatement of American Aaron Peirsol as the 200m backstroke winner was rejected by world governing body FINA.

Goddard was promoted to third for half an hour on an evening of high drama at the Athens Aquatic Centre.

The 21-year-old from Manchester finished a disappointing fourth in the final, but was then dramatically upgraded after American world record holder Peirsol was disqualified.

However, the USA team officials launched an immediate appeal and, half an hour later, Peirsol was confirmed again as Olympic champion, striking gold in a new Olympic record time of 1:54.95.

The drama was not over yet, as an hour and a quarter after the final the Great Britain team confirmed they had lodged their own formal protest.

However, a FINA statement late last night said: "FINA received a written protest from the Amateur Swimming Federation of Great Britain (ASFGB) and Austrian Swimming Federation (VOS) regarding the re-instating of the swimmer Aaron Peirsol (USA) after his disqualification in the 200m Backstroke event at the Olympic Games Athens 2004.

"The Jury of Appeal heard the Referee and the FINA Technical Swimming Commission after which the Jury of Appeal unanimously decided to reject the protest of ASFGB and VOS as the report of the referee did not show any violation of the FINA Swimming Rules by the swimmer Aaron Peirsol."

BOA consider options

The BOA responded this morning by announcing that they will consider their options.

One option would be to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

A BOA spokesman said: "Following the decision of the FINA jury of appeal, chef de mission Simon Clegg will meet this afternoon with the Team GB lawyer and swimming team leader Craig Hunter to discuss the merits of the case and decide whether or not to take it further."

In the wake of the BOA statement, British Swimming issued one of their own, stressing that their overnight announcement, which indicated that the Goddard case was being take to CAS, had been premature.

The statement read: "Contrary to an earlier announcement stating the British swimming team would be taking their protest over the result of the men's 200m backstroke final to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, British Swimming will now be liasing with the British Olympic Committee chef de mission Simon Clegg on Friday over what future action should be taken over their failed appeal to FINA."

Goddard remains empty-handed

For now Goddard, whose time was 1:57.76, is left empty-handed, along with British team-mate Gregor Tait who finished seventh in the race in 1:59.28.

Britain had been hoping for their second medal in the pool during these Games following Stephen Parry's heroic bronze in the 200m butterfly on Tuesday night.

Goddard, just outside Peirsol in lane five, swam a strong first 150m, looking good in the silver medal position, but he faded on the final leg and was edged out of the medals.

Then as the swimmers climbed out of the pool and the results were being digested, the British team in the stand let out a huge cheer as the scoreboard flashed the fact that Peirsol had been disqualified.

It was soon announced that the American had made an illegal turn at the 150m mark.

British celebrations were short-lived, however, as a statement was released confirming that Peirsol's disqualification "was not accepted due to the detail of the reason supplied by the official being inadequate and not in the working language of FINA", the sport's governing body.

Technicality

That meant Peirsol kept his gold medal and his record, with Austrian Markus Rogan second and Razvan Florea of Romania third.

British performance director Bill Sweetenham said last night: "I am extremely disappointed that it was overturned on a technicality when the infringement was obvious.

"To have an infringement overturned because of incompetent paperwork is nonsensical."

The drama apart, Goddard was disappointed with his swim and felt he should have done better and claimed a medal.

"I am a bit disappointed really, I think I went out too hard and I should be walking away with a medal," he said.